Re: Favorite Cocktail w/ Premium Bourbon

Somehow this degenerated from "premium bourbon" to "half-assed scotch" If you can find a cocktail that uses Laphroig barrel strength 18 year old blah, blah, blah then you win. How about talking about bourbon. That beautiful amber liquid this site is based on. I kid because I care.

Re: Favorite Cocktail w/ Premium Bourbon

3 Cocktails come to mind, one with bourbon, one with rye and one great Scotch cocktail.

The first I call the Small Batch Shooter, pick a premium bourbon that you feel has a strong stone fruit, cherry note to your palate and combine and chill it 3:1 with Kirschwasser/Luxardo Maraschino and either Fee's rhubarb or cherry bitters. My version was Black Maple Hill Small Batch, Luxardo Maraschino and rhubarb bitters. I make it so it comes out to a 1.25 oz shooter. Two sips and its gone. Chicks dig it. I do too.

The second was a drink my buddy came up with. Small and right, the Mini-Man features Rittenhouse 21/23/25, and Barolo Chinato, again in a 3:1 ratio, bitters and garnish of your choosing though I think it's best without any. I normally make it small as a preface to diving into a pour of some older Rittenhouse.

Finally the third, the Penicillin, created by some genius cocktail guru, it's basically a blended scotch base sour with a smoky Scotch topper, I like it with a single malt base of Benromach or Springbank CV and then lemon juice, simple syrup, shaken, strained over rocks, and topped with Laphroaig 10.

Re: Favorite Cocktail w/ Premium Bourbon

Originally Posted by HighInTheMtns

This is not a smoky whisky. Don't see a source for smoke flavor in his "smoked" old fashioned.

The smoke likely doesn't come from the whiskey, but from a smoke gun. They're being used in the cocktail world to add different sorts of smokey flavor to drinks. I haven't tried one myself, but here's a youtube video where the bartender makes a smokey old fashioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpO0xdxyUkg

Re: Favorite Cocktail w/ Premium Bourbon

Thanks Wryguy but I meant no scotch and wanted talk of premium bourbons being used in cocktails. I understand slipping into a rye here or there, but not scotch. It reminds me of a pheasant hunting trip. We were cooking a nice meal for the farmer whose land we hunt on. We were having a few cocktails and my dad asked the farmer what he would like to drink. The farmer tried a scotch and water. He then asked, "Do you fellas have a cat around here?" We said, "No we don't, Why?" The farmer says, " Because I'd like to lick its ass to get this awful taste out of my mouth." He then had a few bourbons and a nice steak and life was good.

Re: Favorite Cocktail w/ Premium Bourbon

Generally no. In fact I have refused customers who have ordered a Pappy and coke. Yes these people do exhist. But I have had a couple sazaracs with thomas handy and paid a lot of money for them. They were better than baby saz because of the higher proof and was able to dance better with the pechauds. But for most saz I think a 3 or four year willet 95 /5 ldi at 110 proof works splendidly. This of course isn't bourbon, and bourbon only requires a glass.

Re: Favorite Cocktail w/ Premium Bourbon

I've made killer Mint Juleps with Old Rip Van Winkle 10yo 10/107, the best Old Fashioned I've ever tasted with Vintage 23 Rye and even tipped some coke into the dregs of a pour of Pappy 23 that I really wasn't enjoying one night (it was that or tip the Pappy out). Personally I think the premium bourbons made the drink(s) much more than it normally is, but I do wonder how much of that was expectation vs. actual taste difference from using something like Makers or Beam Black.

Re: Favorite Cocktail w/ Premium Bourbon

Originally Posted by Grain Belt

Thanks Wryguy but I meant no scotch and wanted talk of premium bourbons being used in cocktails. I understand slipping into a rye here or there, but not scotch. It reminds me of a pheasant hunting trip. We were cooking a nice meal for the farmer whose land we hunt on. We were having a few cocktails and my dad asked the farmer what he would like to drink. The farmer tried a scotch and water. He then asked, "Do you fellas have a cat around here?" We said, "No we don't, Why?" The farmer says, " Because I'd like to lick its ass to get this awful taste out of my mouth." He then had a few bourbons and a nice steak and life was good.